SINGAPORE, Jan. 17 --Xinhua-PRNewswire-AsiaNet/InfoQuest
ESPN STAR Sports Inks 10 Year Deal to Produce, Broadcast
And Market PHL Exclusively
Agreement Reinforces Broadcaster's Commitment to Growing Sport in Asia
Sports fans in India can look forward to some of the best hockey action
after the country's national game moved into a league of its own following a
joint agreement between Asia's number one sports broadcaster ESPN STAR Sports
and the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) and Leisure Sports Management (LSM).
The new league, known as the Premier Hockey League (PHL), launched on 13
January 2005 at the Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad, India.
Under the terms of the agreement, ESPN STAR Sports will telecast the hockey
league live and exclusive for the next 10 years in addition to playing a
pivotal role in marketing, producing and broadcasting the League over that
period.
Said R C Venkateish, Managing Director, ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd, "We
are proud to be associated with India's national game. ESPN STAR Sports has
played a key role in developing the overall popularity of sports in India. We
have already exposed millions of viewers in India to a variety of sports and
now aim to popularise hockey and build PHL as a key sports property. The
league was inaugurated by the state CM of Andhra Pradesh on January 13, 2005
and the initial response from the players, fans, viewers and advertising
industry has been very favourable. We are bullish about the growth of the
League -- we believe the PHL will soon become an established event on India's
sporting calendar. With our world-class expertise in covering the world's best
sporting events, we are confident our standards will attract strong viewer
appeal in India."
As part of its efforts to promote the sport in India, ESPN STAR Sports has
launched a comprehensive marketing plan to develop the League nationwide
including initiatives to build a loyal fan base for respective teams at a local
level.
Venkateish continued, "We envisage the popularity of PHL to grow as
consumers associate with their favourite teams. Our marketing campaign is the
result of careful and extensive research into the League. From team names to
team colours and programming values, all effort has been taken to create and
build consumer affiliations with these teams. With this in place, and with the
support we have received from the Indian Hockey Federation, we are certain PHL
will become a sporting spectacle in India."
The League has two tiers consisting of five teams each. Tier 1 will be
called the 'Premier Division' while Tier II will be called the 'First
Division.' The League will adopt a round robin format where all teams will
play each other twice. The winner will be decided on the basis of total points.
Starting 13 January 2005, the League will host one Tier 1 match every
evening on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday for five consecutive weeks.
Interesting elements have been introduced into the PHL to increase viewer
interest in the game. For example, each game will have four quarters of 17
minutes 30 seconds each, instead of the usual two halves. In addition, ESPN
STAR Sports will also complement its coverage of the matches with two audio
feeds providing English and Hindi commentary.
The commitment to grow and develop hockey in India sees ESPN STAR Sports
continuing its winning streak not just in securing and producing top-flight
international sports programming, but also in encouraging the growth of local
sports across Asia. The broadcaster recently inked a similar agreement with
Taiwan's Super Basketball League in November 2004 to promote the growth of
local basketball in the market.
ESPN STAR Sports is a 50:50 joint venture between two of the world's
leading cable and satellite broadcasters, ESPN Inc. and STAR. We are Asia's
complete sports provider reaching over 110 million households for ESPN and over
54 million households for STAR Sports (as of July 2004). We have 13 networks
-- ESPN Asia, ESPN India, ESPN Taiwan, ESPN Philippines, MBC-ESPN (Korea), ESPN
Singapore, ESPN Hong Kong, STAR Sports Asia, STAR Sports India, STAR Sports
Taiwan, STAR Sports Singapore, STAR Sports S.E.A and STAR Sports Hong Kong. We
bring the world's premier live sports and leading regional events to viewers 24
hours a day. On the ground, the ESPN STAR Sports Event Management Group
manages and promotes premier sporting events around Asia, including the Asian X
Games and the San Miguel Asian 9Ball Tour. On-line, espnstar.com,
espnstar.com.cn and espnstar.com.tw interact with millions of users providing
them with in-depth sports news, results and competitions. This multilingual,
online platform which is closely integrated with ESPN and STAR Sports on air
networks, has established the sites as the number one on-line sports
destination in their respective markets.
For further information, please contact:
Stephenie Vasko, ESPN STAR Sports
Tel: +65-6488-6126
Email: [email protected]
Cheryl Sim, ESPN STAR Sports
Tel: +65-6488-6134
Email: [email protected]
SOURCE ESPN STAR Sports
--Distributed by AsiaNet (www.asianetnews.net)--